The Three R’s in the Age of Obama: Rappin’, Revolution and Radicalism

When the White House announced plans for the president’s nationwide address to schoolchildren two weeks ago, worried parents were dismissed as “kooks.” We pointed to the subtext of “social justice” activism rampant in American classrooms. It’s time for a big fat Told You So.

Out of the spotlight, politicized lessons continue to supplant core academics.

Earlier this year, at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township, N.J., schoolchildren were instructed to memorize a paean to Barack Obama. A video uploaded to the YouTube account of Charisse Carney-Nunes, author of the children’s book “I Am Barack Obama” and a self-described Harvard Law “schoolmate” of the president’s, showed students lined up in the auditorium snapping their fingers and chanting in unison:

Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said all should lend a hand to make the country strong again.
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today, equal work means equal pay.
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said take a stand, make sure everyone gets a chance.
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight.
Mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama.
Yeah! Barack Hussein Obama.
…Hello, Mr. President, we honor you today
For all your great accomplishments, we all do say hooray.
Hooray, Mr. President, you are No. 1
The first black American to lead this nation.

Acknowledging the historic nature of Obama’s presidency (“the first black American”) is one thing. Deifying him with creepy spiritual references (“red, yellow, black and white, all are equal in his sight” is cribbed from the famous hymn “Jesus Loves the Little Children”; cheering “you are No. 1”) is quite another. Burlington Township school officials said Thursday the recording and dissemination of the video was “unauthorized,” but acknowledged that the Obama praise session was part of the students’ official curriculum.

Carney-Nunes’ Obama book was on prominent display during the students’ performance. It is a tool, she says, that “allows children to see themselves through the inspirational story of President Obama growing up as an ordinary child, asking, ‘Who will change the world?’ Ultimately, he realizes that he will.” Seeing everything through the lens of Obama, as his incessantly self-referential United Nations speech demonstrated, is a trademark of the perpetual Obama campaign.

This O-cult lesson is exactly the kind of junior campaign lobbying activity that White House officials planned around the president’s education speech. Alert parents and administrators called out the Department of Education’s activist, Obama-centric education manuals before the event. Federal officials altered the language. Obama delivered an innocuous speech. But on cue, education radicals goaded students to engage in political activism.

White House and Hollywood moguls launched a “Get Schooled” initiative this month with Obama that urges students to lobby for higher teacher pay and to embrace the rallying cries “Know Your Rights” and “Change the System.”

At the New Trier High School in Northfield, Ill., educators followed up on Obama’s address with a 45-minute “extended adviser” discussion last week to explore “the significant messages inherent in his speech.”

Illinois writer/blogger Tom Blumer reports that “parents were not informed on a timely basis as to what was going to happen, and were given no specific instructions on how to have their child opt out of the ‘discussions.’” The school’s principal and assistant principal sent out suggestive questions focused on Dear Leader’s Do Something missives:

-- Why do you think President Obama listed the responsibilities of teachers, parents and the government before discussing your responsibility for your education?

-- What are you “good at,” and what do you have “to offer” your family, friends and community?

-- In the speech, President Obama spoke of some of the steps of Effective Effort. Identify them, using direct quotations from the text to support your assertions.

-- Respond to President Obama’s final questions for you: “What’s your contribution going to be? …”

In addition to radical White House Teaching Fellows like Chicago high-school educator Xian Barrett (an outspoken charter school foe who founded a “Social Justice Club” and bussed students to protest) and Michelle Bissonnette, a Los Altos, Calif., teacher who is “focused on developing my leadership as a more culturally and racially conscious educator,” the White House has embraced controversial homosexual rights advocate Kevin Jennings as “Safe Schools czar.”

Lost in all the chanting for change is the core commitment to impart actual knowledge. For progressives in the Age of Obama, setting high academic standards is secondary to the self-improvement of the “whole child” and “service” to the cause of social justice.